Innovative facility to produce cell-based pandemic influenza vaccine

12/14/2011

Posted on PediatricSuperSite.com

A new manufacturing plant in North Carolina can create influenza vaccine using cultured animal cells instead of the conventional process of using fertilized eggs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The plant, which was dedicated this week in Holly Springs, N.C., is the first US facility to use a faster and more flexible technology to make influenza vaccine. The dedication signals that the FDA could authorize the facility to produce cell-based influenza vaccine during an influenza pandemic, according to a press release from HHS.

The facility is a public–private partnership of the HHS and Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. This partnership will be maintained under contract for at least 25 years.